News

Two Classic My Bloody Valentine Records To Be Issued All-Analog

Michael Fremer  |  Oct 7, 2017

My Bloody Valentine albums Isn't Anything and Loveless, originally released in 1988 and 1991 on Creation Records, are being reissued all-analog under the supervision of founding member/producer Kevin Shields through his own label.

Both albums, but particularly Loveless are considered "shoegazing" classics and feature washes of mesmerizing, jangly electric guitars, well-placed noise and melodic intensity. The particularly great sounding Loveless was engineered by Alan Moulder who's worked with The Jesus and Mary Chain, Arctic Monkeys, Blonde Redhead and many others.

For these two releases, Mr. Shields specifies that the records will be cut from the original analog tapes using a Studer A80 fitted with a preview head and a Neumann VMS80 lathe "...for a full analog signal path". Dammit! That's the way every record for which a useable analog tape exists should be cut!

Both of these albums were reissued back in 2003 by Plain Records a division of Runt, which also distributes 4 Men With Beards. The people involved have impeccable musical taste, but unfortunately they could care less about source integrity. Most sound "okay" but are probably cut from CDs. That's a guess because the label doesn't provide any information about sources or who cut or anything. The big problem there is that once labels like Plain and 4 Men With Beards "lock up" a title, a label that does care about using original analog tapes, can at best, get the rights at 45rpm. So sometimes while you might complain that you would be happy to get a record at 33 1/3, that is impossible.

Both of these new MVB reissues, scheduled for release in January of 2018, can be ordered directly from the My Bloody Valentine website. They will be pressed on 180 gram vinyl and come in heavy weight tip-on style gatefold jackets with poly-lined printed inner sleeves.

Thank you Mr. Shields for doing this correctly!

COMMENTS
GroovyGuru's picture
Submitted by GroovyGuru on Sun, 2017-10-08 02:54

Here we are !
Well, I wondered when the music of my generation would become audiophile...
Thanks for the information, Mr Fremer.

seltaeb's picture
Submitted by seltaeb on Sun, 2017-10-08 08:31

This is great news. Can't wait to hear this. What a pity they couldn't have treated the latest Bowie box set (77-82) with the same respect. Have you heard it yet Michael? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Sun, 2017-10-08 10:27
Haven't heard, but much controversy about bass levels and a few other things...
M-Sevs's picture
Submitted by M-Sevs on Sun, 2017-10-08 12:47

Plain Recordings can go to hell.

atomlow's picture
Submitted by atomlow on Mon, 2017-10-09 12:32

I've been looking for a decent copy out in the wild and it hasn't happened yet. I'll stop looking since this sounds to good to be true! Thanks for the heads up!

fattalien's picture
Submitted by fattalien on Wed, 2017-10-11 11:33

Long overdue but completely welcome in my book. Albums from this era that were meticulously recorded on analog equipment deserve to be presented in this manner with this much care. Michael -- thank you for keeping us up to date with these type of releases.

kleinbje's picture
Submitted by kleinbje on Thu, 2017-10-12 01:56

My understanding is this was originally a digital recording. What exactly it the source of the analog tape, digital mix down?

kleinbje's picture
Submitted by kleinbje on Thu, 2017-10-12 01:58

I forgot the most important part which is I love this album and I am thrilled someone cares so much about sound quality in this genre. Can't wait to hear it, the plain stinks.

AlienRendel's picture
Submitted by AlienRendel on Thu, 2017-10-12 13:01

Very, very excited about this. These were formative recordings in my young life. Pre-ordered.

dbowker3d's picture
Submitted by dbowker3d on Fri, 2017-10-13 05:53

Loveless though came out already as a great high quality vinyl reissue a few years back, which I picked up at the time. The sound was light years better than the CD only release that had originally come out. Maybe it went out of print again though.

Anyway, my copy of Isn't Anything is original and super thin, both physically and sounding. That'd be a nice one to pick up for sure.

Pendex's picture
Submitted by Pendex on Wed, 2017-10-18 17:02

Slow on the "uptake" here since Mikey posted this a few days ago. FWIW..I am listening to my copy of "Isn't Anything" and it sounds pretty good, but not out of this world... It is a 2003 pressing on (I am pretty sure) 180 gram vinyl, by Plain Recordings, gatefold, "Manufactured by Rhino Entertainment." No info on how it was recorded though but doesn't sound like it was a digital...

zer0's picture
Submitted by zer0 on Wed, 2017-11-01 11:33

https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/my-bloody-valentines-kevin-shie...

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